The epicentre of Viking teeth filing appears to be a Viking cemetery at Kopparsvik on Gotland, which has produced more examples than any other site so far examined. Most had neat parallel marks only on their two upper front teeth – which may originally have had charcoal or other colouring rubbed in to increase the impact – but some had lines incised into three, four or even more teeth. Further research on the Wessex teeth may reveal whether they had any connections with Gotland.

Vikings worldwide seem to have taken up a fashion for painful but impressive modification of teeth around the 10th century AD. But until the first Scandinavian finds in Sweden in the 1990s, Europe seemed to have missed the craze completely.

More teeth have since been found in Denmark, and now England, so more examples seem likely to turn up – or be recognised from previous excavations.